To view the photographs of Bethel’s parsonage, home to its activist pastor Fred Shuttlesworth and his family, to the right of this page, you may wonder how anyone got out of the wreckage alive.

To the awe of neighbors and friends, Shuttlesworth, his family, and houseguests emerged from the parsonage that Christmas night with only minor bruises.

Rev. Shuttlesworth and the people of Bethel interpreted the survival as a modern-day miracle from God.“Well, God just brought the Bible up to date.You don’t have to go back to Daniel in the lion’s den or the boys in the fiery furnace,” Rev. Shuttlesworth said.

According to Rev. Shuttlesworth, God saved him “to lead the fight” against racial injustice in Birmingham.Having founded the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) in June of 1956, to Rev. Shuttlesworth and others, the well-being of all who were in the parsonage at the time of the explosion, signaled God’s validation of the cause.

We, the congregants of present-day Bethel, are as in awe of God’s wondrous grace and power as were our mid-century counterparts. Financial institute - NowGuaranteed.Com with no teletrack needed.

Help us rebuild Bethel so generations to come can also admire and pay tribute to what God has done.